If you want to get fit and lose weight, then the best way to do it may simply be to walk more. The health benefits of walking are manifold and the great thing is you can do it at pretty much any age.

You can also build walking into your daily regimen with relative ease. So instead of driving to the shops or taking the tube, bus or train to the office – try walking all the way if you can, or at least part of the way. You’ll be amazed at how the weight drops off you and how much fitter you quickly begin to feel – even if it feels quite easy.

You can then steadily build up speed, distance and your stamina.

The other great thing about walking is, of course, that it’s a social activity. You can talk as you go along or take in beautiful sites whether rural or urban, In other words, the exercise is incidental when it comes to walking rather than exercise for its own sake, as in a gym for example, which quickly begins to feel like work for many people – and which they usually give up on fairly quickly.

Making exercise incidental to the other stuff you’re doing in life, and/or building it into your daily routine without really thinking about it is the key to keeping it up over many years. In this way, you can stay fit with ease through walking.

A moderate and regular physical activity like walking has been proven to be beneficial to health in many ways.

Walking for around 30-60 minutes a day has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes and stroke.

What many people find is that when they start to walk regularly, and to keep it up, the fitness and wellbeing they feel makes them want to do more – an upward spiral of fitness in other words. So, for example, regular walkers find it an enjoyable hobby and are keen to don rucksacks whenever they get the chance, and head off for weekends of walking at some of the country’s most beautiful spots.

Camping, walking and outdoor pursuits tend to go hand in hand. A cheap tent in a sale,a rucksack and some comfortable boots and trainers and you’re all set. But first – get walking; you won’t regret it.